Found my ancestors WWI and WWII draft cards... (find, search, charge)
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So The other day I was searching for some of my ancestors and came across a few of their WWI and WWII draft cards. I thought this was very interesting and wondered what can I do with this info. Can I find where they where stationed? What unit they where in? What can I do/find with this info?
Those are draft registration cards. It's registering with the civilian board that drafts people in time of war. Your relative may or may not have actually served in the military. You can get some family information, address, and occupation from draft registration cards.
What rlchurch said is true. Every eligible male had to register but didn't necessarily serve.
There are some army records available. I think I've seen them on ancestry.com? Not sure.
Most such records are pretty limited.
One good thing about the WW draft registration cards is they provide a limited physical description. Often in genealogy we're looking at records of people we've never seen. The draft cards give height and build, hair and eye color. Kinda fleshes 'em out. Pun intended.
Only men register, but often list their wife, mother, or other female relative as the next of kin.
So The other day I was searching for some of my ancestors and came across a few of their WWI and WWII draft cards. I thought this was very interesting and wondered what can I do with this info. Can I find where they where stationed? What unit they where in? What can I do/find with this info?
I found a bunch of them for my family on Ancestry.com -- it's puts the person in his place at that time, but doesn't say if he served or not.
My dad didn't fill one out -- he went and signed up for the Air Corp in WWII -- but I did get a copy of his discharge papers. My sisters are dying to find out what he did and where he was in the war....
But there was a fire. And those records were destroyed. I swear I should make that tee shirt.....
There are WWII enlistment files online through the Library of Congress. (Not draft cards) You will have to have a pretty good idea of what branch & when your ancestor signed up. I found my Dad (Army Air Corps) because I knew exactly where he lived and worked; turned out he enlisted at a station at work. These records go from name to skills to service # to education -- lots of things. Finding his service number was, for me, the most improtant item.
If you find a person served, often the discharge papers are filed at the county courthouse where they lived on exit. The filing was totally optional and often copied. You can always look there, esp. for service after WWII.
To Talleysmom:
Army Air Corps records were not necessarily burned. If you have the DD214 (discharge papers), then you should have most of the info of where he was stationed. You can TRY for the entire record.
Army Air Corps records were not necessarily burned. If you have the DD214 (discharge papers), then you should have most of the info of where he was stationed. You can TRY for the entire record.
Yep -- I did and they were. And I wish I could reconstruct them -- it sounds as if he had a fascinating time there. He transferred from Air Corp to Army Corp of Engineers. If my understanding is correct, his records would have transferred with him to the burned sections.
He never talked about danger -- a lot of them wouldn't, but from what I could get from reading the little on his unit I could find, it sounds like he was in a group that got sent all over to fill in after heavy casualties to rebuild.
He also talked about building pontoon bridges over the Rhine -- they'd get half done and the Navy would patrol the river and take apart their work.... he'd always laugh about that.... but then I saw a History Channel documentary about it -- and cried most of the way through it. I kept scanning the faces and seeing Daddy everywhere (even though I wasn't)...
My ancestors draft cards were gold mines for me! On the cards were their home addresses listed and I was able to trace more ancestors from the address! I was thrilled!
My dad and four of his brothers all signed up for service in WWII. One brother didn't come home (Tuskegee Airman KIA), but the rest did. I just found their records on those online enlistment files you had mentioned.
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And I wish I could reconstruct them -- it sounds as if he had a fascinating time there. He transferred from Air Corp to Army Corp of Engineers. If my understanding is correct, his records would have transferred with him to the burned sections.
